NEWS

The 38^th European-wide seminar of the series supported by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and aimed at the Plant Science community and its stakeholders.

TTT: The seminar will be held online each third Thursday of the month at three (CET).

 On 19^th December 2024 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring “Adaptation to climate change associated stress”

Prof. Jonathan Jones, The Sainsbury Laboratory, UK             

 “Why we need to understand plant immunity to cope with climate change’

Dr. Hilde Nelissen, VIB University of Gent, Belgium

 “Plant growth under mild drought – cellular and molecular mechanisms.”

Assoc Prof. Ebe Merilo , Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Estonia

 “Stomatal regulation: from Arabidopsis to barley

The seminars will be hosted on Zoom and last approximately 1.5 hours. Numbers will be limited to 300 attendees and therefore please register early if you would like to join. There will be ample opportunities to ask questions and join the debate. So please join us to support this new and exciting initiative for European Plant Science by following this link just prior to the start of the seminar.

EPSO members register in advance for this meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0rde-prz0iGN2c4dsb4XaEG3glvR3Xdv2A

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

In the coming months we will be on the lookout for talented plant scientists among the EPSO membership to present their findings and perspectives to the EPSO seminar series. If we approach you to talk, we hope you will be happy to support the initiative. This is a fantastic opportunity for both eminent world leaders and talented up-and-coming early career researchers to present their research to an international audience and to network with potential collaborators. If you wish to suggest a theme for one of the spring seminars and / or nominate yourself or one of your colleagues to give a seminar, we most welcome your suggestions. Please contact Tim George ([email protected]) to provide your name and potential talk title.

We look forward to seeing you all for the 38^th EPSO seminar on the 19^th December 2024

 Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser

EPSO Plant Science Seminar Series Organising Committee

Click here to read: Full EPSO news item

 Contacts:

Tim George, Hutton / UK & EPSO Board

Alan Schulman, LUKE / FI & Advisor EPSO Board

Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board

EPSO | 31.10.2024 | all WGs

 EPSO sees the move towards a stronger, transformative, less prescriptive and more bottom-up R&I FP with expanding European Research Council (ERC) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), European Innovation Council (EIC) and boosting pan-European collaborative research across the R&I continuum as an important step into the future.

 EPSO welcomes the report ‘Align, Act Accelerate Research, Technology and Innovation to boost European competitiveness’ published by the Expert Group on the interim evaluation of Horizon Europe and guide on the evolution of the European Research and Innovation (R&I) Framework Programme (FP).

EPSO is pleased that the main recommendations it submitted to the Expert Group are reflected in the report, such as:

• Add Research Actions in the collaboration programme to create an upwards R&I spiral and a quantum change in the Framework Programme. Make collaborative basic research an intrinsic component (in recommendations 3, 6, 7).
• Preserve and strengthen the European Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (in recommendation 5).
• Policy makers should define the goals but leave the pathways for how to achieve these open to the stakeholders to truly enable innovation (in recommendation 9).
• Increase trust in and flexibility for beneficiaries (in recommendation 9).
• Add funds from other programmes for actions transferred from these to the Framework programme.

EPSO urges to better engage and consult European academic associations and European industry associations on R&I strategies and policies.

Regarding the plant sector, this includes the suggestion to build, from 2025 on, a coherent set of topics enabling formation of a critical mass of effort towards crop improvement for Food and nutritional security and sustainability.

EPSO provided advice on this to the Expert Group, national ministries, and the European Commission and is looking forward to continuing this constructive collaboration with advice towards the development of the next R&I Framework Programme.

  Click here to read: Full EPSO first reaction to the Expert Group evaluation of Horizon Europe and guiding the evolution of the European R&I Framework, 31.10.2024

Contacts: 

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director, BE

Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU, NO & EPSO President

Alan Schulman, LUKE, Univ. Helsinki, & former EPSO President

On 15.5.2023, 2.10.2023 and 13.2.2024, EPSO member-scientists and policy makers from sixteen to seventeen countries across Europe and from the European level held the seventh to ninth informal meetings to assess the situation for research and development on New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBTs) after the ruling of the ECJ in July 2018 and later on the publication of the EC legal proposal on NGTs.

They exchanged views on the current situation of genome editing (GE) in Europe and possible next steps to enable Europe to better address climate change, achieve food and nutritional security, and establish a sustainable agriculture in Europe and world-wide. Such steps should bring the discussion forward on the EU legislation and facilitating potential flagships. The meetings were held under Chatham House Rules.

The next meeting will be held in autumn 2024.

EPSO offers to collaborate with policy makers to develop an appropriate future-ready regulation to enable the European public sector, small- and medium-sized companies and farmers to contribute more comprehensively to food and nutritional security and to use all available tools to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Notwithstanding the technical option retained, EPSO supports a science-based revision of the present European legislation establishing a more proportionate product-based risk assessment. EPSO is also willing to contribute to the societal debate on genome editing and to communicate in a fact-based and yet accessible manner about innovative plant science and its societal role.

Jens Sundström, Alan Schulman and Karin Metzlaff

Read the report of meetings 7, 8, and 9 

Contacts:

Jens Sundström, EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies

Alan Schulman, EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director

EPSO was kindly invited by Manuel Heitor, chair of the High-level Expert Group on Horizon Europe and FP10, to answer four questions to provide input to the discussion of the HLG. 

EPSO highlights Food and Nutritional Security as a major challenge to be tackled together with Climate change, biodiversity, human health.

EPSO suggests strengthening the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).

Most important innovations which should be considered in FP10 are advised by EPSO as follows:

• Add Research Actions in pillar 2: To overcome the gap of collaborative basic research and complete the research and innovation cycle in pillar 2, we recommend making collaborative basic research an intrinsic component of R&I Actions and introducing Research Actions focussed on basic and applied research. In this way an upward spiral would be created that is adding new knowledge in each round, elevating the innovation to the next higher level – a step change in the Framework Programme.
• Strategic investment in crucial R&I areas – e.g. Critical mass support for Plant biology and crop improvement / adaptation to address the challenges above – include all approaches: comprehensive approaches from all branches of basic plant biology, ranging from molecular and genomic to cellular, developmental, physiological, and systems, to deliver novel crop varieties (crop improvement and plant breeding) adapted to climate change and contributing to Food and Nutritional Security, environmental sustainability, biodiversity (natural and cultivated) and human health. This will enable the shift from reliance on ‘elite varieties under optimal conditions’ to ‘nutritious and resilient varieties under a range of constraints’ (environment, climate, input, processing, consumer demands).
• Policy makers should define the goals, but not the pathways how to reach these to truly enable innovation.
• Add funds from other programmes for actions transferred from these – there is only one research programme.
• Increase trust in and flexibility for beneficiaries.
• Further simplify proposal / project / reporting to no longer need consultancies to succeed.

EPSO looks forward to further discuss and help implement these recommendations with colleagues from the High-Level Group, the Member State ministries and funders, the European Parliament and the European Commission.

Click here to read: Full EPSO – HE FP10 – Answers to questions by M Heitor – HLG, 17.7.2024

Contacts:

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director, BE

Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU, NO & EPSO President

Alan Schulman, LUKE, Univ. Helsinki, & former EPSO President

The signatories ask the negotiators at COP16 in October 2024 and the Pre-COP Conference in Montreal in August to consistently advocate for the preservation of open, free and fair access to digital sequence information (DSI) to harness technological innovation and new solutions to global challenges:

‘We, the undersigned, ask negotiators at COP16 in October 2024:

Please support that open, free and fair access to Digital Sequence Information (DSI) is maintained. We fully support the principle that DSI users should share benefits. However, the mechanism to share benefits must be obligatory, enable open science principles and be legally and technically practical. Therefore, we call for a multilateral and decoupled DSI benefit-sharing system. This means no payments at the point of access to DSI-data nor mandatory registration of users. The multilateral mechanism should also allow and bring visibility to non-monetary benefit sharing from scientific research. We also ask you to support cross-sectoral, harmonized and therefore future-proofed approaches.’

EPSO signed the joint declaration of national, EU-wide and international research organisations and institutions. This was initiated by the German Digital Sequence Information (DSI) Expert Group – representatives from various research institutions and associations who closely relate to the generation and use of DSI.

The declaration was brought to the attention of the European Commission and already some national ministries involved in the negotiations. Further dissemination to national ministries is highly appreciated.

EPSO published its own statement on DSI on 26.6.2018.

EPSO and its members look forward to engaging as a major stakeholder with national ministries across Europe and the European Commission and continues providing scientific input in the course of the discussions with policy makers and other stakeholders.

Read the joint declaration of 1.7.2024 ‘Maintain open, free and fair access to Digital Sequence Information (DSI)’, as well available at https//www.leibniz-biodiversitaet.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Maintain_open__free_and_fair_access_to_DSI___ENG_fin__Joint_Statement.pdf

Read the EPSO statement ‘Access to Digital Sequence Information must remain open’, 26.6.2018

Contacts:

Nike Sommerwerk, Museum für Naturkunde , Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, DE – initiator of the declaration

Frank Hartung, Julius Kühn-Institute (JKI), DE & EPSO Chair WG Agricultural Technologies (incl. DSI)

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO

EPSO welcomes the European Commission’s Horizon Europe Draft Orientations towards Work Programme 2025. For plant scientists, most relevant is cluster 6 on Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture & Environment and the Soil Mission.

In general, the draft orientations Work Programme 2025 are lagging behind the Strategic Plan 2025-27 and EPSO provided in its submission suggestions about how to address this.

For the Biodiversity destination, the “increase of agrobiodiversity – e.g. by supporting R&I on niche, underutilised and novel crops” are not yet considered as main expected outcomes. Cultivated biodiversity or agrobiodiversity is still underestimated in the draft orientations as a contributor to biodiversity.

Similarly, crop improvement and crop management can equally contribute to biodiversity and need to be supported at critical mass.

Regarding the Food Systems destination, the EC refers to ‘Ensuring healthy food and nutrition security …. In the Strategic Plan, crop improvement and adaptation is one path towards food and nutrition security, whereas this is not spelled out yet in the draft orientations.

Likewise, the agricultural primary sector should contribute comprehensively not only to sustainability, but at the same time to food and nutritional security via sufficient and nutritious food with macro-and micronutrients.

Contributions anticipated in the Strategic Plan should be included in the expected outcomes of the Orientations, such as “Key research areas for agriculture will include mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, fostering plant and animal breeding and conserving and improving the use of genetic resources (including the use of new technologies).”, “address crop diversification, improvement and adaptation”, “bolster plant health… leverage the potential of protein crops and underutilised crops.”

EPSO suggests major improvements to the Soil Mission: soils don’t exist without plants, or the ecosystems of which plants are the foundation organisms in both natural and agroecosystems. This interaction between plants and soils and soil health, should be added in the Orientations. Adding contributions from plant science and plant ecology towards soil health and sustainable soil resources will change the current mainly passive character into a balanced approach including interventions.

As explained in the EPSO position paper on Horizon Europe (Feb. 2023), EPSO suggests adding from 2025 on a critical mass effort on enabling crop improvement and adaptation for food and nutritional security, sustainability and bioeconomy.

To this end, EPSO suggests further implementation of four EPSO concepts (see statement).

EPSO looks forward to further discuss and help implement these recommendations with colleagues from the European Commission and the Member State ministries and funders.

 Click here to read: Full EPSO statement and find in the Annex the original submission.

EPSO submissions to the EC consultation are:

Biodiversity:                              Contribution ID: b0a23782-1474-45a8-8c83-3aa01b9a7a88

Food systems:                          Contribution ID: 57556a93-4537-4b65-a0a6-700f8e6cc90c

Circular economy & bioeconomy: Contribution ID: 6f30808d-3a24-4897-90f5-50345b7cabab

Innovative governance..:            Contribution ID: 2fa9392d-e837-4ff1-ae9c-97d8972378f7

Soil Mission:                             Contribution ID: edcd3f50-dd1b-4e78-a16b-8423b158fc59

 Contacts:

Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director, BE

Timothy George, Hutton Institute, UK & EPSO Board

Odd Arne Rognli, NMBU, NO & EPSO President

Alan Schulman, LUKE, Univ. Helsinki, & former EPSO President